TEEN GUILTY OF SLAYING IN TILDEN HIGH HALLWAY

Terry Wilson, Tribune Staff WriterCHICAGO TRIBUNE

A South Side youth was convicted Friday of fatally shooting another youth and wounding two others in a hallway at Tilden High School in November 1992.

Joseph White, 16, of 324 W. 51st St., was convicted of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated battery and one count of unlawful use of a weapon by a jury before Cook County Circuit Judge Richard Neville.

White, who was tried as an adult, was accused of killing DeLondyn Lawson, 15, who suffered a gunshot wound in his back as he stood near gang members in a crowded hallway at the high school located at 4747 S. Union Ave. in Chicago.

The shooting occurred after gang members jostled White, who also was a gang member, in the school hallway for not paying a gambling debt they felt they were owed, according to testimony in the trial.

Although the school had installed metal detectors to screen weapons, the detectors had not been used that day.

"Is there anyone in this courtroom who, if they had a loaded handgun and were being attacked by 10 to 15 (gang members), wouldn't have fired the gun?" defense attorney Robert Habib asked jurors.

"He did what any reasonable person would have done at this point," Habib said. "Joseph White, at this point, was a scared little kid."

Habib said gang members had approached White's friends and told them he would get beaten up for not paying a debt they felt he owed.

He said White returned to school afraid, carrying the gun to protect himself.

On the day of the shooting, Nov. 20, 1992, White came to school with a handgun secreted in his clothing, prosecutors said. At 10 a.m., he approached the other gang members and confronted the boy he had argued with, vowing not to repay him, according to testimony.

The gang members jostled him and allegedly threw him up against a locker, but he was able to break away, according to testimony.

As he ran backwards, away from the gang, witnesses testified he pulled a gun and fired from three to six shots into the crowd. The bullet struck Lawson in the back and pierced his heart.

Testimony at the three-day trial revealed that there were daily fights at the school so when the fatal scuffle began, students in the crowded hallway appeared to pay little attention until a student yelled "He's got a gun!"

Neville could sentence White to a prison term of 20 to 60 years on the first-degree murder conviction.

White was convicted on two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm for injuring two other students during the shooting.

The charge of unlawful use of a weapon was for possessing a gun at a high school.